• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.286-290
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• 2006

A genomic library of Streptococcus vestibularis ATCC49124 was constructed in an E. coli plasmid vector, and the urease-positive transformants harboring the urease gene cluster were isolated on Christensen-urea agar plates. The minimal DNA region required for urease activity was located in a 5.6 kb DNA fragment, and a DNA sequence analysis revealed the presence of a partial ureI gene and seven complete open reading frames, corresponding to ureA, B, C, E, F, G, and D, respectively. The nucleotide sequence over the entire ure gene cluster and 3'-end flanking region of S. vestibularis was up to 95% identical to that of S. salivarius, another closely related oral bacterium, and S. thermophilus, isolated from dairy products. The predicted amino acid sequences for the structural peptides were 98-100% identical to the corresponding peptides in S. salivarius and S. thermophilus, respectively, whereas those for the accessory proteins were 96-100% identical. The recombinant E. coli strain containing the S. vestibularis ure gene cluster expressed a high level of the functional urease holoenzyme when grown in a medium supplemented with 1 mM nickel chloride. The enzyme was purified over 49-fold by using DEAE-Sepharose FF, Superdex HR 200, and Mono-Q HR 5/5 column chromatography. The specific activity of the purified enzyme was 2,019 U/mg, and the Michaelis constant ($K_{m}$) of the enzyme was estimated to be 1.4 mM urea. A Superose 6HR gel filtration chromatography study demonstrated that the native molecular weight was about 196 kDa.

• Proceedings of the Korean Statistical Society Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.31-36
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• 2005

An identification and characterization of susceptibility genes for common complex multifactorial diseases is a challengeable task, in which the effect of single genetic variation will be likely dependent on other genetic variations(gene-gene interaction) and environmental factors (gene-environment interaction). To address is issue, the multifactor dimensionality reduction (MDR) has been proposed and implemented by Ritchie et al. (2001), Moore et al. (2002), Hahn et al.(2003) and Ritchie et al. (2003). With MDR, multilocus genotypes effectively reduce the dimension of genotype predictors from n to one, which improves the identification of polymorphism combinations associated with disease risk. However, MDR cannot handle missing observations appropriately, in which missing observation is treated as an additional genotype category. This approach may suffer from a sparseness problem since when high-order interactions are considered, an additional missing category would make the contingency table cells more sparse. We propose a new MDR approach with minimum loss of sample sizes by considering missing data over all possible multifactor classes. We evaluate the proposed MDR by using the prediction errors and cross validation consistency.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.227-233
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• 2007

We characterized a full-length cDNA of CaCOP1 from pepper. Phylogenetic analysis based on the deduced amino acid sequence of CaCOP1 cDNA revealed high sequence similarity to the COP1 gene in Oryza sativa (84% identity). CaCOP1 shares high sequence identity with regulatory protein in Arabidopsis (84%), constitutively photomorphogenic 1 protein in Pisum sativum (81%) and COP1 homolog in Lycopersicon esculentum (79%). CaCOP1 gene exists single copy in the chili pepper genome. Expression of CaCOP1 was reduced in response to inoculation of non-host pathogens. The expression of this gene under abiotic and oxidative stresses was investigated, including 200 mM NaCl, 200 mM mannitol, cold ($4^{\circ}C$), 100 ${\mu}M$ abscisic acid (ABA), and 10 mM hydrogen peroxide ($H_2O_2$). CaCOP1 was induced significantly 3 h after low temperature treatment but not by dehydration or high salinity. Moreover, CaCOP1 was not induced by plant hormone ABA. These observations suggest that CaCOP1 gene plays a role in abiotic stress and may be belong to ABA-independent regulation system.

• Proceedings of the Korea Society of Poultry Science Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.78-80
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• 2000

A new murine TGF-$\beta$ family member, myostatin(growth/differentiation factor-8) is expressed specifically in developing and adult skeletal muscle and may be a negative regulator of skeletal muscle development. This study aims at characterization and identification of genomic organization of chicken myostatin gene. In thi study, we identified the genomic organization and sequence of chicken myostatin gene. Results of RT-PCR and Northern blots from various tissues showed different mRNA expression levels in developmental stages of chick embryos and demonstrated strong expression of myostatin mRNA in skeletal muscle. These facts suggest that chicken myostatin gene would play an important role not only in skeletal muscle cell but also in other tissues.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.8-15
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• 2007

Rhodopsin, a dim-light receptor, is a model system for the study of G protein-coupled receptors that transduce extracellular signals into cells. To study the molecular mechanisms of visual systems in fish, the rod opsin gene of olive flounder Paralichthys olivaceus was characterized. The full-length P. olivaceus opsin gene was obtained by PCR amplification of genomic DNA, as well as cDNA synthesis. A comparison of clones obtained from both methods indicated that the olive flounder rod opsin gene lacks introns. Sequence analysis of the opsin gene indicated that it contains a 1,056-bp open reading frame encoding 352 amino acids. The deduced amino acid sequence contains features of typical rod opsins, such as sites for Schiff's base formation (K296) and its counterion (E113), disulfide formation (C110 and C187), and palmitoylation (C322 and C323). An opsin sequence alignment showed the highest similarity between P. olivaceus and Solea solea (95.1%), followed by Hippoglossus hippoglossus (94.5%). An opsin phylogenetic tree revealed a close relationship between olive flounder and teleost rod opsins.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.54-59
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• 2009

Carotenoids such as $\beta$-carotene and astaxanthin are used as food colorants, animal feed supplements and for nutritional and cosmetic purposes. In a previous study, an astaxanthin biosynthesis gene cluster was isolated from the marine bacterium, Paracoccus haeundaensis. Geranylgeranyl pyrophosphate (GGPP) synthase (CrtE), encoded by the ortE gene, catalyzes the formation of GGPP from farnesyl pyrophosphate (FPP), which is an essential enzyme for the biosynthesis of carotenoids in early steps. In order to study the biochemical and enzymatic characteristics of this important enzyme, a large quantity of purified GGPP synthase is required. To overproduce GGPP synthase, the crtE gene was subcloned into a pET-44a(+) expression vector and transformed into the Escherichia coli BL21(DE3) codon plus cell. Transformants harboring the crtE gene were cultured and the crtE gene was over-expressed. The expressed protein was purified to homogeneity by affinity chromatography and applied to study its biochemical properties and molecular characteristics.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.642-648
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• 2012

We determined the nucleotide sequence of the URA3 gene encoding orotidine-5'-phosphate decarboxylase (OMPDCase) of the erythritol-producing osmotolerant yeast Candida magnoliae by degenerate polymerase chain reaction and genome walking. Sequence analysis revealed the presence of an uninterrupted open-reading frame of 795 bp, encoding a 264 amino acid residue protein with the highest identity to the OMPDCase of the yeast Kluyveromyces marxianus. Phylogenetic analysis of the deduced amino acid sequence revealed that it shared a high degree of identity with other yeast OMPDCase homologs. The cloned URA3 gene successfully complemented the ura3 null mutation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, revealing that it encodes a functional OMPDCase in C. magnoliae. An enzyme activity assay and reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction indicated that the expression level of the C. magnoliae URA3 gene in S. cerevisiae was not as high as that of the S. cerevisiae URA3 gene. The GenBank accession number for C. magnoliae URA3 is JF521441.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.24 no.7
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• pp.1008-1013
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• 2014

The use of antimicrobial agents for additives or therapeutics is strongly associated with a prevalence of antimicrobial resistance in commensal Enterobacteriaceae. We aimed to characterize integrons in Enterobacteriaceae isolates obtained from chicken cecums in Korea. Moreover, the correlation between integron gene cassettes and antimicrobial resistance was also investigated. A total of 90 isolates the belonged to Enterobacteriaceae were recovered from chickens grown at Gyeongsang and Chungcheong provinces in Korea. Antimicrobial susceptibility tests were performed by the disk diffusion method. PCR and DNA sequencing were also performed to characterize the gene cassette arrays of the integrons. Of the 90 Enterobacteriaceae isolates tested, 39 (43.3%) and 10 (11.1%) isolates carried class 1 and 2 integrons, respectively. Whereas the class 2 integron did not contain gene cassettes, the class 1 integrons carried seven different gene cassette arrays. The class 1 integrons harbored genes encoding resistant determinants to aminoglycosides (aadA1, aadA2, and aadA5), trimethoprim (dfrA1, dfrA12, dfrA17, and dfrA32), lincosamides (linF), and erythromycin (ereA). Moreover, the presence of a class 1 integron was significantly related to a high resistance rate of antimicrobial agents, such as spectinomycin and trimethoprim. We confirmed that diverse class 1 integrons were widely distributed in Enterobacteriaceae isolates from chickens and directly contributed to the resistance to diverse antimicrobial agents in Korea.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.26 no.11
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• pp.1983-1992
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• 2016

Pseudomonas strains isolated from the heavily contaminated Lubin copper mine and Zelazny Most post-flotation waste reservoir in Poland were screened for the presence of integrons. This analysis revealed that two strains carried homologous DNA regions composed of a gene encoding a DNA_BRE_C domain-containing tyrosine recombinase (with no significant sequence similarity to other integrases of integrons) plus a three-component array of putative integron gene cassettes. The predicted gene cassettes encode three putative polypeptides with homology to (i) transmembrane proteins, (ii) GCN5 family acetyltransferases, and (iii) hypothetical proteins of unknown function (homologous proteins are encoded by the gene cassettes of several class 1 integrons). Comparative sequence analyses identified three structural variants of these novel integron-like elements within the sequenced bacterial genomes. Analysis of their distribution revealed that they are found exclusively in strains of the genus Pseudomonas.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.1066-1070
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• 2001

The PhyA gene, encoding myo-inositol hexakisphosphate phosphohydrolase in Aspergillus niger var. awamori (wild-type), was cloned and sequenced. The cDNA was overexpressed by a multicopy gene expression system in Pichia pastoris KM71. Recombinant, wild-type and commercial phytase from Aspergilus ficuum NRRL 3135 (Natuphos) were purified. The PhyA gene of Aspergillus niger var awamori showed perfect homology to the phytase of Aspergillus ficcum and $97\%$ homology to A. niger var awamori (L02421). Wild-type phytase was highly glycosylated and more thermostable than the other two, while deglycosylated farms of three phytases showed identical molecular weight, 507 kDa. After heating at $80^{\circ}C$, wild-type, commercial, and recombinant phytases retained $57\%, 32%,\;and\;8\%$ of their original activities, respectively. In conclusion, glycosylation plays a key role in the thermostability of phytase and its enzymatic characterization.